THE FUNERAL SERVICE OF DEPARTED PRINCIPLE F. PHOTIOS
On the afternoon of Friday the 26th of July/8th of August 2014, the funeral service for the late Hagiosabbite Monk, f. Photios, who had served as Principal at the Patriarchal School, was held at the Monastery of St Savvas the Consecrated.
The location was chosen per the wish of the departed, expressed during his treatment to the Exarch of the Holy Sepulcher in Greece, Archimandrite Damianos, who also arranged for the transfer of the body from Athens to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on a flight of El-Al Israeli airlines.
The funeral service was led by His Beatitude, Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem. Co-officiating were the Patriarchal Commissioner, Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias; the Elder Secretary-General, Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina; the Patriarchal Commissioner in Bethlehem, Archbishop Theophylaktos of Jordan; Archimandrite Evdokimos, the Monastery’s Spiritual Guide, and other Hagiotaphite Hieromonks. Praying with them were Hagiosabbite Fathers from the Monastery.
The funeral speech was delivered by the Elder Secretary-General, Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina.
The remains of f. Photios was kept at St Nikolas chapel, where the funeral service was performed, until its burial, on the following day, at the Monastery’s cemetery.
At the conclusion of the service, His Beatitude praised the monastic and ascetic ethos of f. Photios, especially his unselfishness and non-ownership, and wished that his soul find repose and that his ethos be imitated by younger Hagiotaphite Fathers.
From the Secretariat-General